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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24347791">Homecoming</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/queuebird/pseuds/queuebird'>queuebird</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>AEDWQ 2020 [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Inception (2010)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Space, Crash Landing, Earth, Homecoming, M/M, Science Fiction</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 08:21:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>303</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24347791</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/queuebird/pseuds/queuebird</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Eames clutches at the railings as the ship rattles and screams around him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Arthur/Eames (Inception)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>AEDWQ 2020 [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1717273</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Homecoming</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Eames clutches at the railings as the ship rattles and screams around him.</p><p>
  <i>Yellow sun on his skin, puffy white clouds scudding across a blue sky, flowers in the trees.</i>
</p><p>The view outside the window is nauseating, the swirl of darkness and stars too fast to process.</p><p>
  <i>Ants crawling down the sidewalk, a river slipping through the city, the warmth of a body next to his.</i>
</p><p>He squints as everything brightens to an incomprehensible mesh of blue and white. <i>Is that---?</i></p><p>
  <i>A smile. A dimple. A ring on a finger.</i>
</p><p>Then everything goes black.</p><p> </p><p>He wakes to the stench of smoke and an unbearable pain up his leg, his whole body crushed under metal. When he tries to move, his agony climbs to a fever pitch, and he stops instantly, focuses on breathing.</p><p>Once the bright, sharp pain recedes to a more tolerable level, he hears people yelling, muffled, somewhere outside the wreckage. The sound of clanking and shifting.</p><p>He doesn’t know how long he lies there, but eventually something moves, and a crack of light---<i>sunlight!</i>---around a shadowed face splits Eames’s view.</p><p>Arms stretch out for him, and he’s pulled gently onto solid ground. Dirt.</p><p>Earth.</p><p>Eames marvels at the feel of it under his fingers, the smell like a physical ache in his chest, before he looks up and freezes.</p><p>“Arthur?” he croaks, barely above a whisper.</p><p>Arthur blinks, then stares at the ground. “You promised. You said you’d come back.”</p><p>“I did---but I thought---” <i>you were dead.</i></p><p>Arthur’s lips turn up, rueful, and he lifts his hand to tuck his hair behind his ear. </p><p>A smile. A dimple. A ring on a finger.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Eames whispers. “I thought of you every day.”</p><p>Arthur looks at him then, gaze warm and steady.</p><p>“Welcome home, Mr. Eames,” he says.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>
  <a href="http://queuebird.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a>
</p></blockquote></div></div>
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